MACEET Research Project Proposal

Research Project Proposal-Details

You will be summatively assessed by one examination, i.e., an online test, towards the end of the module and one item of coursework, which will be a Research Project Proposal.This assignment specification will describe the requirements of the coursework.

The Mechanical and Construction Engineering Education Trust (MACEET) was established in 1992 as an independent charity to support education and research in the disciplines of engineering, construction, and project management. Over the past 25 years it has provided support and encouragement to a number of researchers seeking to support engineering, construction, and project management as a scholarly and professional discipline. For 2017- 18, its silver jubilee year, the trustees of MACEET wish to take the opportunity to commission a research project that will point the way forward for new and exciting research in one of the disciplines.

The trustees are looking for approaches to the research project that are theoretically constructed on the heritage of recently published research. Furthermore, the successful research project needs to be innovative and imaginative and not necessarily constrained by conventional wisdom in terms of the solutions published from previous research. The trustees wish to see this as an opportunity to support exciting, new research that is derived from current knowledge that will influence the future direction of research and knowledge sharing in engineering, construction, and project management.

The project will seek to identify and analyse the most effective responses the academic community can make to the challenge of specifying new, exciting research in the areas of engineering, construction, and project management that is theoretically and methodologically derived from existing research published in the following research publication journals during the limited period of 2010 to 2017:

1. MSc Construction Project Management and BIM - Construction Management and Economics

2. MSc Engineering Management - Journal of Management in Engineering

3. MSc Mechanical Engineering - Journal of Mechanical Design

4. MSc Project Management – International Journal of Project Management

5. MSc Renewable and Sustainable Energy Technologies - Environmental Science and Technology

· To identify specific areas of research activity that have been published in one of the research journals listed above (you should select a journal that is based on the title of your named University award) and to carefully select one journal article that encapsulates a novel contribution to the discipline that is of most interest to you.

· To critically evaluate and deconstruct the theoretical and methodological framework of the selected journal article. This forensic examination must give detailed and careful consideration of the study’s research goals; the rationale for the study; the theoretical framework; the research design; research data collection and analysis methods; and conclusions and recommendations arising from the study. Consideration must also be given to any theoretical or methodological assumptions or irregularities that limit the study’s application.

MACEET Research Project

· To propose a new, original, and exciting research project that fully recognizes its theoretical and methodological heritage and that builds upon the findings of the forensic examination of the above. Given the range of activities undertaken by engineering, construction, and project management professionals worldwide, it is not expected that the MACEET research project will seek to assess all of the areas in which researchers can contribute to knowledge. Rather, the intention is the MACEET research project will focus on a single area of professional practice/existing knowledge. Those bidding for the MACEET research project must provide a full and detailed critical evaluation and justification of the specific area they have identified as being worthy of further investigation, focusing on:

· the potential for making a meaningful contribution to engineering, construction, and project management knowledge; and · the potential for making a valuable recommendation to engineering, construction, and project management professional practice. It should be noted that, while the intention is to focus on a specific area of activity/knowledge, it is very much the desire of the Trustees that the successful Research Project Proposal could take a global perspective.

The MACEET Research Project Proposal shall provide the following data within the submission that is outlined in Section 3.6 Research Project Proposal structure below:

· Detailed forensic examination of one research article published in one of the journals listed is Section 3.1 MACEET research project above;

· Evaluation and justification of the research design and method to be adopted during the MACEET research project;

· Procedure or method statement of the MACEET research project, which includes a critical evaluation and justification of the proposed research instruments and data analysis techniques; and

· Expanded literature review, which supplements the material provided as a result of the forensically examined research article. The literature review must include fresh and up-to-date literature sources derived from Northumbria University’s library search tool (material derived from the web, Google Scholar, etc. will not be accepted).

What epistemology informs the research?

Crotty is suggesting in this question that the researcher considers the theory of knowledge embedded in the theoretical perspective of the intended study, e.g., objectivism, subjectivism, etc.? 

What theoretical perspective lies behind the methodology in the research question?

Crotty is suggesting in this question that the researcher considers the philosophical stance behind the chosen methodology, e.g., positivism and postpositivism, interpretivisim, critical theory, etc. 

What methodology governs the selection of research method(s)?

Crotty is suggesting in this question that the researcher considers the strategy that links the research method to the outcomes of the study, e.g., experimental research, survey research, ethnography, etc.

What research method(s) does the researcher intend to use during the study?

Crotty is suggesting in this question that the researcher considers the techniques and procedures that he/she will use to gather primary data, e.g., questionnaire, interview, focus group, observation, etc. 

Using Crotty’s four elements of inquiry, you (the researcher) are required to generate a research question and to design a research project that would enable you to answer your question. Your research question must be constructively aligned to the ethos of your master’s programme of study. You should write a Research Project Proposal which captures this process and includes an evaluation of the techniques that could be used. The Research Project Proposal should be written in an academically acceptable format in which all bibliographic citations in the running text and references listed in the bibliography are fully referenced using the Cite Them Right version of the Harvard referencing system. The absolute word limit for the Research Project Proposal is 2000 words (see Section 3.6 Research Project Proposal structure below). 

Rudestam and Newton (2007) have provided the following outline of key issues for researchers to consider when structuring and writing a Research Project Proposal.